Wedding and portrait photographer in Dordogne and Charente

Tag: 4-seasons gallery

Barbara Holgate is a sculptress based in South West France. She creates small scale, finely detailed figures of both people and animals. I photographed her during the opening of her recent exhibition at the ‘4seasons’ gallery in St Aulaye, Dordogne, France

The gallery is compact, busy and was tight with friends and visitors for the opening night. After a couple of preliminary shots I decided that I wanted Barbara and an example of her work isolated from the busy background. It was important to show that the image had been made in the gallery but essential that the other works on the display stands and walls (including two of my own prints) did not pull the viewer away from Barbara and her mother and child group. The solution was simple. I blasted them with a burst of flash bounced from a small reflector. This cleanly lit them at the same time ensuring that the falloff of light kept the background dark.